AS the Island celebrates African Awareness Week, a Birmingham-born DJ has spoken to the JEP about how he aims to bridge African and Caribbean cultures through music events in Jersey.
Dean Leith said that he wanted to create a diverse musical culture in the Island inspired by his Jamaican heritage and love of black music.
“I grew up in a Caribbean community in the UK and was hearing a lot of the music my parents would play like reggae, ska, soul and lovers rock,” he said.
Leith started out as a DJ touring with reggae artists before going on to tour with Grammy-nominated hip-hop artist Busta Rhymes, and eventually settling in Jersey in 2018.
“Coming to Jersey, there wasn’t much of a Jamaican community. But there was a big Caribbean community that got involved with the African community,” he explained.
In 2019, Leith joined the local charity Friends of Africa Jersey and was inspired to explore various African music styles.
“The great thing about being a member is learning more music styles and genres that I was not aware of,” he said. “Now I understand the difference between Kenyan music and Ugandan music.”
During the Covid lockdown, Leith and his peers noticed a lack of entertainment options for the black Afro-Caribbean community.
“We wanted to bring people from different backgrounds together to have fun and relax,” he explained.
This led him to start his promotion company BLOCDOWN, which puts on events featuring a variety of musical styles.
“We have Kenyan, South African, Caribbean, English and Portuguese DJs playing at our nights,” he said.
He also co-runs a recording studio based at Millennium Park called The Garden with his business partner, Lee “Contagion” Davis.
As part of the eighth African Awareness Week to be held in Jersey, there have been pop-up stalls and music performances in the Royal Square, along with workshops in schools and at the museum.
